Let the Flames Begin
by MarieMM
Summary: Sakura is taken captive by some Rain Ninja. injured, bleeding, with a broken leg, she escapes when she runs into Team Hawk. back in Konoha, Naruto, Kakashi, and Sai are trying to figure out why they were ambushed by the Rain Ninja. rated T for Language.
1. captured

**ok, yes i know, i'm like extremely close to finishing my 2nd Chapter to Rushing Black. sorry it's taking so long, writers block i guess. o.0 well, this is the first chapter to my seconed fanfic. Let the Flames Begin. I hope you like it. **

** MMM **

"Sakura!!" screamed a surprised Naruto as he watched his half unconscious team mate being carried out of the fighting area by an enemy ninja.

"N-Naruto," Sakura whispered, being juggled by the enemy harshly and roughly, through the underbrush.

"I—I'm s-orry."

"Shut up you wench!" yelled the Rain-ninja, as he shoved her hard against the nearest tree, and leapt through the fogged air.

Sakura's head bobbed back and forth, and her eyes started to roll into the back of her head. Her pink hair covered in mud, and blood.

**NO!** Screamed her inner self, **NOT NOW! Don't give in Sakura!**

But it was all in vain. Just as Inner Sakura said those last words, Sakura received a sharp prod on one of her pressure points on her neck. And the world suddenly fell black.

And all through the forest could be heard the screaming and yelling of a certain, yellow haired, teenaged boy, and the shouting of her sensei.

NARUTO'S P.O.V.

* * *

"Sakura!!" Naruto yelled as he ran from branch to branch in pursuit of his missing teammate. Rain was pouring down now upon him, as his hands clenched into tight balled fists.

NO! He yelled in his mind. How had this happened?! He hardly remembered a thing during the time period that Grandma Tsunade had sent them on this mission.

They were supposed to gather info on the Akatsuki, and in the event, they were stopped by some jounin level Rain Ninja. And Sakura was badly injured and taken captive.

"DAMN IT!" Naruto cursed.

"Naruto, wait up!" Kakashi sensei said as he caught up with his student.

"NO! We've gotta save Sakura-chan! If those Rain Ninja lay ONE hand on her—"

"Naruto!" Kakashi replied again. "As much as I'd like to go and help Sakura, we need to take care of our injured first. Plus in this rain it will be impossible to find her!" taking a deep breath Kakashi reached out and grabbed Naruto by his sleeve.

"Let go!" Naruto yelled at him, eyes growing to an intense red.

Kakashi didn't loosen his grip.

"Look Naruto, Sai is badly injured. He might bleed to death if we leave him alone for too long. Since Sakura isn't going to be here to heal Sai, we need to hurry back to Konoha NOW, so that Sai can get his proper treatment!"

Naruto closed his eyes in a painful silence.

Then said in a troubled voice, "But—what about Sakura? We can't leave her alone to defend herself against those bastards. I'm NOT going to lose another one of my teammates!"

"I know Naruto, I know." Kakashi sensei said with regret in his voice.

"Right now though, we need to get Sai to the infirmary. We're not that far from Sunagakure. We'll go there and then when Sai has been healed, we will make a plan to get Sakura back."

A long, pregnant silence followed afterward. They could distinctly see their breath fogging up in the rain, as it pored down hard.

"Sakura-chan…… Hold on" Naruto whispered as he and Kakashi sensei turned around, and ran back to their injured team mate.

Sakura's P.O.V

* * *

The rushing of trees brushing against Sakura's ear, whispering words unknown to her,

SWISH……swish….

The injured Konoichi sighed.

Where am I? Sakura thought. What happened?

Drops of water clung to her cheeks, slowly dripping downward and curving over her chin.

Slowly, Sakura opened her eyes, and felt her captor grip her even tighter. The Rain Ninja was going at an alarming pace through the tree tops. Sakura gasped.

NARUTO! How could she have forgotten? The way his face twisted in shock when she was helplessly carried away by the enemy. She couldn't get it out of her throbbing mind.

There were cuts and bruises all over Sakura's body. Blood dripping from her oozing wounds and onto the trees below, she hoped that someone would notice it, and might find her.

Suddenly, the Rain ninja slowed down more, and eventually stopped in a small clearing. Throwing her down roughly onto the muddied ground, mixing blood with mud.

"AAHH!" Sakura cried in agony, grinding her hand into the mud, as she started to fall face first down. She could taste her own blood as some of it leaked out from a head wound, and down into her mouth. Her clothes were torn, with rips; she suspected that her hand had also been fractured from the intense pain that she felt.

The Rain Ninja stood silently infront of Sakura, watching her twitch in the mud.

"Speak up!" the Ninja commanded after a long deep silence.

Sakura raised her head, almost looking like she was drunk. Her eyes lids hazily lifted up as her emerald eyes stared the ninja down.

"And if I don't?" she replied menacingly, barely feeling the pain as she glared at the enemy.

The Jounin stepped up to Sakura never taking his eyes off of her as he walked up, and placed his foot on Sakura's leg.

"Then I will make this ever the more painful." He stated simply, waiting for her response.

The rosette haired girl never grimaced as she raised her eyes to face him once again.

"N-Never"

The Rain ninja raised his eyebrows slightly. _Oh really?_ He thought.

"Fine then, have it your way." Then he raised his foot that had been resting on the injured girl's leg, and, gathering as much chakra as he could keep in his foot, stomped hard onto her leg. A sickening crack filled the area, but he was surprised to get a little less than a whimper from her. Blood ran down her lips.

_She's biting herself?_ The Rain ninja thought impressed.

_She's tougher than I thought._

Sakura then closed her eyes. Afraid of talking because she knew she would scream then.

The Rain Ninja glared at her.

"Give me info on Konoha. Now." He said. "I know that you're the Hokage's apprentance, so tell me."

Sakura gathered up the courage to speak.

"w-w-hy d-do y-ou wan-nt t-to k-know?" she stuttered obviously in pain.

"That's none of your concern little girl!" he shot back.

"Hisao!!" yelled a feminine voice farther back in the clearing.

Sakura turned to look behind the man, seeing a female Rain Ninja come stomping out of the clearing, her face covered in a mask, just like Hisao.

The Rain Nin turned around to face the woman, and then called out,

"What are you doing here Kaori?"

"I would ask you the same thing. I would also ask who this Leaf Village brat is too."

Gesturing towards Sakura, Kaori gave a questioning look to Hisao.

"She's the Hokage's apprentice; I took her hostage to see if I could get some information out of her."

The Masked female ninja smirked at the pink haired-injured girl.

"Kinda pathetic girl, to be taken hostage when you're the Hokage's apprentice huh?"

Sakura's eyes fell down.

**Shannarro!** Inner Sakura fumed, **show them they're wrong, they have no idea!**

Sakura, raising her eyes defiantly, glared at Kaori.

"Shut up!" she spat through her teeth.

Kaori ignored this.

"Has she told you anything yet Hisao?" Kaori asked expectantly.

Hisao glared down at Sakura.

"Not a thing. I even broke her leg and still said nothing."

Well, Kaori did look impressed.

"Well, if you aren't getting anything out of her now, I don't think you'll get anything else out of her in this condition. Take her with us, when she heals, we might be able to get more out of her."

Hisao nodded turning around to gather up the Konoichi.

"Where the hell did she go?!" he shouted at the empty spot where the girl was supposed to be laying in.

Kaori looked frantic.

"She can't have gone far. LOOK! Over there by the trees, it looks like she dragged herself off into the forest while we were talking. We'll find her!"

* * *

Pain seized Sakura, as she tried to drag herself farther into the trees. Earning herself more cuts and bruises from the sticks and rocks she dragged herself over. She froze.

Hearing voices ahead of her. They were different voices though. Sakura was sure that they weren't those Rain Ninja from before.

Sakura kept on dragging herself forward, a little more to her right, since she didn't know if they were enemy ninja or not. The voices were getting closer. She could tell sort of what they were saying. She heard a female yell.

"Suigetsu, UGH, SHUT UP!" she screeched.

A chuckle was heard throughout the forest.

"I'll shut up when you're dead Karin."

Who are these people? Sakura thought, wincing as she hit her bleeding head against a rock.

"I can't believe that Sasuke-kun made us go out here to gather up firewood!"

Sakura froze, her body now shaking violently. SASUKE? Where!? Sakura looked around her. Suddenly, this Suigetsu, and Karin stopped.

"Don't move Suigetsu" Karin whispered.

"What?" Suigetsu whispered back, "do you sense someone's chakra?"

_Damn it,_ Sakura cursed a million times over in her head.

Everything became quiet.

"Should we go tell Sasuke, Karin?"

"Let's find out who it is first, ok?"

Silence followed afterward. Sakura suspected that this Suigetsu person nodded.

"Who are you?! Show yourself!!" the woman shouted.

Silence

"We know you're here, if you don't show yourself right now, we'll find you!"

Silence

"HISAO! Come on hurry up!" shouted a voice that Sakura dreaded to hear. "The Konoha brat is over here somewhere, I can see her blood all over the place!"

Oh, Kami-sama, oh Kami-sama, HELP ME!

"I know, I know Kaori!" Hisao replied gruffly.

Oh well, Sakura thought, I guess I'd rather be caught by those guys than by the enemy.

And with that Sakura started to struggle and drag herself further, rustling in the bushes and trees.

"Suigetsu!" Karin yelled "Over there!" she said pointing over in the direction of Sakura.

"Hisao!" Kaori yelled, pointing to where Sakura was.

"Right!" he yelled, running in the direction of Sakura.

"HELP ME!" Sakura screamed, as the Rain Ninja threw her over his shoulder, Suigetsu and Karin staring at the scene.

Sakura was bleeding heavily, punching Hisao's back.

"What the—"the man named Suigetsu said staring at Sakura.

Sakura yelled out in pain as Hisao slammed her broken leg against a tree trunk.

Suddenly, and out of what seemed to be in the blink of an eye, a figure that Sakura had seen so many times in her childhood came up and punched the Rain ninja in the stomach and sent him flying backward, while catching Sakura in his arms.

Sakura stared up, to see, her once, teammate, her crush, the one who had betrayed Konoha. Who she saw right infront of her eyes, was none other than……. Sasuke.

**hahaha! sorry i had to finnish this in a cliffhanger. ;) right now i'm working on finishing my 2nd chapter to my other story, but i'll get both of them up in no time. please Review!**

**MMM**


	2. reuinion

**Hi!! FINALLY!! i got the seconed chapter to Let the Flames Begin. :)**

**sorry it took forever. but school just started for me today, so i won't have much time to work on this. but don't worry, i'll still have the chapters up. it just might take awhile. **

**MMM**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, though i wish i did. **

_Sakura yelled out in pain as Hisao slammed her broken leg against a tree trunk._

_Suddenly, and out of what seemed to be in the blink of an eye, a figure that Sakura had seen so many times in her childhood came up and punched the Rain ninja in the stomach and sent him flying backward, while catching Sakura in his arms__Sakura stared up, to see, her once, teammate, her crush, the one who had betrayed Konoha. Who she saw right infront of her eyes, was none other than……. Sasuke._

* * *

"Sasuke…" Sakura whispered through the blood in her mouth. Sasuke glanced down at Sakura for a moment, his onyx eyes stared into Sakura's emerald ones.

Hisao, and Kaori glared at Sasuke, while Suigetsu, Karin, and another man stared at them open mouthed at the whole scene.

Finally Sasuke spoke "Can you walk?" he asked Sakura seriously. Sakura shook her head.

"Suigetsu!" Sasuke continued, walking up to the white haired\eyed man.

"Take Sakura." And without waiting for Suigetsu's response, he handed Sakura over to him. Sakura could feel Suigetsu's eyes looking hard at Sakura, while the woman named Karin examined her, then gasped.

Suigetsu looked over to Karin, "What's wrong Karin?"

Karin looked at Sakura even harder.

"It's you…." She whispered, her rimmed glasses slightly sliding off of her nose.

"You know her?" Suigetsu asked surprise clearly controlling his voice.

"Iie," Karin replied, "I don't KNOW her, but remember when Sasuke-kun got injured, and we stopped at that one town so that he could recover?"

Suigetsu nodded, staring at Sakura.

"Well, I remember passing a pink haired, Leaf Konoichi while gathering some supplies."

"And you suspect that this is the same girl?" Suigetsu asked amazed.

"Yes," Karin simply stated brushing her red hair out of her face, with the flick of her hand.

Now that Sakura thought about it, when they were sent on that mission to find Sasuke, she remembered passing a red haired woman in a town where Kiba had told all of them he could smell Sasuke's scent.

Hisao's face was twisted with anger as he saw he had more ninja to take care of.

"Let me down," Sakura whispered. Suigetsu stared at Sakura.

"Let me down, NOW." Sakura said with a little more iron.

"Sorry Pinky but Sasuke said for me to hold you, and that what I'm gonna do."

Sakura glared at Suigetsu.

"Put me down now, I don't care what _Sasuke_ says, PUT ME DOWN!" Sakura yelled in his ears, struggling through the mans grip to get out of his arms.

"Dammit Pinky! Stop struggling! We're trying to save your life!"

Sakura continued to struggle. She did not want to get Sasuke involved in her problems, she did not want to feel weak infront of him. Not now.

Sakura had no chakra left in her, so she couldn't fight that great, but……….

If it meant that Sasuke wouldn't get involved she'd take the risk, just then she reached down into her back pouch, grabbed one of her very few kunai, and stabbed Suigetsu in the hand with it. Suigetsu then dropped Sakura, yelling a string of colorful words along with it. 'Ow' Sakura winced, trying to drag herself further away from the scene, only to be picked up by Sasuke. He glared at her.

"Stop moving, you're annoying."

Sakura smirked a bit as Sasuke said that last word, 'Annoying.' It brought back painful memories, ones she didn't want to think of at that moment.

Suddenly, Hisao shouted to Sasuke, "Give us back the pest!" he glared at Sakura. A look that said only too clearly, 'I'm soooo going to kick your butt when we get you back'

"And what if we don't?" Sasuke stated simply. Kaori looked over to Hisao.

"Well kill you," Hisao stated. Sasuke raised his eye brows.

"Oh really?" Sasuke challenged, handing Sakura back to the glaring Suigetsu.

"Yes," Kaori finally managed to get out grabbing an umbrella from her back. Hisao did the same. _Oh no! _Sakura thought.

"Ninpo—"Hisao began, throwing the two umbrellas into the air, "Jouro Senbon!"

Just then what seemed like a thousand senbon needles came flying from the umbrellas, down towards Sakura.

_Naruto's P.O.V._

* * *

Naruto paced back and forth in the infirmary, it was amazing that Naruto didn't bore a hole into the floor at the pace he was going.

_Come on Kakashi-sensei! _Naruto thought, _what's taking you guys so long!?_

Well, they had all arrived safely to Sunagakure, and the Kazekage, Gaara, had been kind enough to lend them rooms for there stay.

Kakashi had just left to send a message to their Hokage, Tsunade, about Sakura's capture by the Rain nin.

Sai was healing still, he had had been poisoned by some of the rain ninja's senbon, but other than that his injuries weren't that serious.

"Hey, look who it is, the dickless wonder," Sai greeted Naruto with his "getting too old" insults. Naruto turned a deep red as he scowled at him.

"Shut up dumb ass! I do too!"

Just then a nurse came around the corner, looking at Naruto like he had two heads. She lowered her head, turning a bright pink, before muttering, "Gomen," and rushing off to another end of the infirmary.

"Hn," Sai smirked.

Naruto turned an even deeper red, as he stomped up to Sai and grabbed his collar, raising him into the air.

"Listen, I don't care that you just got out of the infirmary! If you say that again, I'll make your life a living hell!"

"Aheem," cut in a familiar voice.

Naruto and Sai turned to face Kakashi, who looked bored, as usual.

"Cut the fighting for once and just listen." Kakashi looked at Naruto.

-"Naruto, let go of Sai. NOW."

Naruto glared at Sai once more while Sai just gave him a smug grin.

Then let Sai down onto the ground.

"Hmph," Naruto looked away from Sai, a three year olds pouting face plastered on his.

"Ok, let get on with this," Kakashi began.

"Well, first off, I sent the message to Hokage-sama. She should get it within a few days. Right now we need to go and devise a plan to go and rescue Sakura."

Naruto nodded seriously, the childish look on his face disappeared.

"Hai!" Naruto and Sai nodded, heading with Kakashi to an empty room to create a plan.

_Back in Konoha, one day later_

* * *

"WHAT!!" yelled Tsunade, knocking over her cup of tea, its contents spreading over her desk. Luckily her desk was cleaned off at that time. Tsunade standing up, shaking, her hand gripping a sheet of paper, with a message that said:

_Hokage-sama, I am sorry to say this but on our mission, we were ambushed by Rain ninja, we don't know why, but we are going to try and figure it out. The unfortunate thing though, is that during the ambush, Sakura got injured very badly, and was taken captive by the Rain nin. During the process, Sai was injured as well. We were unable to chase after Sakura, and try to save her, due to the bad weather, and our other injured companion. Right now, Naruto, me, and Sai are in Suna, where the Kazekage had given us shelter until we are able to leave again. I would like to request that you send some more teams, to go and look for Sakura, while we're unable to do so. (PLEASE before Naruto tears my head off!) _

_Team Kakashi_

Tsunade stood there, the letter in her hands, shaking violently. It looked like the paper in her hands were about to tear apart.

"Tsu-Tsunade-sama?" came the voice of her worried assistant, Shizune.

Tsunade just stood there, gazing at the piece of paper in her hands.

_What in the world would the Rain, ambush us? We are in a damn allegiance with them!!_

_And Sakura……they must have been some tough Rain nin to be able to injure her to that extent, and capture her! _

_Ugh… the Council of Elders will have a field day with this news!!_

Shizune, standing and watching the still shaking Tsunade, spoke out to her,

"Tsunade-sama? What happened?What's wrong?"

Tsunade shoved out the letter to Shizune, and as Shizune scanned the letter, she whispered, "Sakura…"

"I know, I know," Tsunade agreed. "But please, we can't inform the council members yet. They'll go on a rampage, plus, they might decide to do some things that we don't want to happen right now."

Shizune agreed to this, and nodded.

"Okay Shizune, right now I want you to get the rest of the rookie nine, and have them report here by two O' clock! Got it?"

"Yes Tsunade-sama!!" and with that, Shizune jumped back, bowed, and left the room in a hurry.

Tsunade sat down in her seat with a sigh. Not bothering to clean up the mess that she had on her desk. _Knock, knock! _Came the sound outside her office door.

"Come in…" Tsunade said wearily, her hand resting on her forehead.

The door opened, and Jiraya stepped in.

"Hey Tsunade! Just came in to drop by and give you the daily report!" he stared noticing, the tired look that Tsunade gave him.

"Long day huh?" He said, grinning. Tsunade smirked slightly, "Ya, you could call it that."

"Well," Tsunade continued, "give me the update."

Jiraya nodded, "The Akatsuki have been acting strangely, there haven't been any recent sightings of them anywhere. They must have changed there hiding spots to some other place more un-noticeable. But that doesn't make sense either. Because then they would have to re-build the contraption, that they use to extract the Bijuu." Jiraya shook his head.

"It doesn't make any sense, none at all."

Tsunade thought about what she had just heard.

_I wonder……… maybe it has something to do with the Rain ninja, and Sakura's capture…_

"What's wrong Tsunade?" Jiraya asked the busily thinking Hokage.

Tsunade pulled out the letter that she had received from Suna, and showed it to Jiraya.

Jiraya read it.

"You don't think—"

"yes," Tsunade continued. "Maybe the Akatsuki, and the Rain ninja that were involved in Sakura's capture, are somehow connected."

**DUNDUNDUN...! ok, so, i'm in kind of a delema, i can't think of what will happen to Sakura. i just can't think of anything. so if you have any good ideas PLEASE tell me!! i can use whatever help i can get!!**

**Please review!**


	3. Mission?

**I AM SOOOOOO SOOOORRRRRYYYYY!!!!!! for such a late update!! i just haven't been able to work much on it due to school and such.**

**I made myself finish this chapter today, so i hope you enjoy it! please reveiw and rate!**

**DISCLAIMER: i do not own naruto, if i did, aliens would take over the world, and the Akatsuki would take over the world using cookies.**

"We'll kill you," Hisao stated. Sasuke raised his eye brows.

"Oh really?" Sasuke challenged, handing Sakura back to the glaring Suigetsu.

"Yes," Kaori finally managed to get out grabbing an umbrella from her back. Hisao did the same. _Oh no! _Sakura thought.

"Ninpo—"Hisao began, throwing the two umbrellas into the air, "Jouro Senbon!"

Just then what seemed like a thousand senbon needles came flying from the umbrellas, down towards Sakura.

_SWISH!_

Sakura's eyes closed, tightly shut, waiting for the pain to come.

"SASUKE-KUN!" yelled Karin's surprised voice.

No pain……………………………..

_What?_ Sakura thought, as she opened her eyes a crack

"Sasuke…" Suigetsu's voice echoed.

Sakura observed the scene, what she saw was not exactly surprising, but it sill took her off guard. She, Suigetsu, Karin, and Juugo were completely moved from the spot they were in before, senbon needles dug in the spot where they were previously. Sasuke stood infront of the group, katanna in hand; he pointed it mercilessly at Hisao, and Kaori, who unfortunately stood helplessly infront of them.

Obsidian eyes, stared coldly, at the petrified brown ones.

"What do you want here?" Sasuke said his voice almost sounding bored.

Kaori looked furious, "Give us the girl!!" she yelled to Sasuke, "she's what we want!"

"Why?" Sasuke asked his eyes piercing holes through Kaori's furious face.

"That's none of your business!" she spat back at him.

"Hn"

Suddenly, Hisao leaned forward toward Kaori, whispering words into her ears.

Kaori's eyes lit up like flames. She smirked. Then stepped out infront of Hisao,

And put her hand up, ready to make hand signs for another ninjutsu. Sakura stared hard at the Rain-nin wondering what she would do next.

Raising one hand into the air, Kaori murmured words that could barely be heard.

--"Kirigakure no Jutsu….."

Then suddenly what appeared to be very thick mist came in and shrouded Sakura's view.

"Hidden Mist Jutsu…." Sakura whispered surprised. She remember this justu from when the old Team 7 went to the Hidden Mist for their first C-Ranked escort mission. Or, aka the mission that went horribly wrong. "Zabuza's……..technique?" Sakura began, "how—"

"We'll meet up very soon brat" Hisao said. Sakura could barely even see his silhouette in the dense fog. And then, the two nin suddenly disappeared.

"They're gone." Sasuke stated, after a brief silence, while sheathing his katanna.

Karin sighed, and wiped her brow. Slamming herself onto the ground, grinning at Sasuke like he was the most perfect person in the world. The giant blonde guy named Juugo just kept standing there staring at Sasuke and Suigetsu (not holding our pink haired Konoichi) gaped at the empty space where the two Rain Nin were standing only two minutes ago. Sakura felt out of place sitting at the edge against a tree, wounds still bleeding, her splintered and broken bone making a huge bump in her skin.

_Oh good,_ Sakura thought,_ they're gone_

A huge amount of fatigue wiped over Sakura, and gasping with the loss of who knows how much blood, fell face forward into the dust, giving in to the over powering darkness.

Dream\flashback__________________________________________________________

"_Sakura-chan!" yelled the young, yellow haired Naruto. _

"_Yeah?" giggled the little pink-haired girl as Naruto started tickling her._

"_You cheated" Naruto pouted, looking at her in the eyes._

"_Did not!"_

"_Did to!"_

_Laughing and rolling around in the grass, 6 year old Sakura smiled. She was never happier in her entire life. Naruto had seen her crying softly on the ground earlier with her messy bangs infront of her face. And (_being the Naruto he is)_ came up to her and kneeled down to look at her tear smeared face._

"_Nii-chan, what's wrong?" he had asked_

_Sakura, still sniffling looked up to him, eyes wide and teary then looked away. _

"_Nu-ting" she muttered staring at the ground. Hiding hear forehead even more._

_Naruto observed her movements, then looked at hear forehead covered with her hair._

"_Nii-chan, your forehead isn't big, if that what you're upset about," he grinned_

_Sakura stared up at him, then shyly looked away. _

"_Hey, what's your name Nii-chan?" Sakura looked at the yellow haired, blue-eyed boy, a small smile formed her lips._

"_M-my n-name i-is---" _

_Naruto nodded slowly, urging her on like a teacher would to a kindergartener._

_-"Haruno Sakura!" she finally bursted out. Naruto smiled at her, "I'm Uzumaki Naruto, Sakura-chan," then grinning he pulled Sakura off of the ground and asked "Sakura-chan, do you want to play with me?" This time Sakura smiled a real genuine smile, and nodded._

_THUD._

"_Naruto!!!!" Sakura complained, Naruto, who had tickled her even more grinned wickedly._

"_Hai Sakura-chan?"_

"_STOP!" she squealed out, tears running down the sides of her face since she was laughing so hard._

"_SAKURA!" yelled a deep, familiar voice._

"_Otosan-" Sakura started to say, Naruto sitting next to her._

"_WHAT do you think you're doing?!" Sakura's father asked marching up to Sakura and pulling her by her tiny hand._

"_OW! Otosan! Let me go! I was just playing with Naruto!"_

"_I don't want to hear it; I don't want you to ever see this boy again, you hear me?" Sakura now actually crying, twisted in her fathers grip to turn and face Naruto, who had heard the whole thing. Naruto looked at her sadly, than whispered, "It's all right Sakura-chan, it's okay."_

_Then Sakura sadly turned around, letting her father lead her back to her home. With Naruto watching her walk down the street._

"Pinky? Hey! Pinky wake up!"

Sakura moaned as she felt cold water splash into her face. _Pinky?_ WTF kind of a name is that?? _Jeez…_

"N-Naruto!" Sakura gasped, sitting up straight, her hair rippling over her face.

"AHHH!" Sakura screamed out in pain, her twitching hand holding her broken leg. _Heh, _she thought grimacing, _guess I didn't realize the pain till it actually hit me. Stupid!_

Sakura felt a cold hand press her down so she was lying on the ground again.

"Whoa Pinky, your leg's broken lie down." Suigetsu spoke through his shark-like teeth.

"Like I care!" Sakura spat back at him, slowly sitting up. Shoving Suigetsu away from herself, leaning forward, gathering up some of her stored chakra, fixed on healing her broken leg. When Sakura heard a loud popping noise, of her leg finally snapping back in place, Sakura started to get up gathering her footing, so she didn't fall down again.

"Phssh! I can see why Sasuke thinks you're annoying!" Karin sniffed from behind Sakura.

Sakura slowly turned around, the pain in her legs stinging her like a thousand bees, to face Karin. Suigetsu started to back away from what he sensed was an "evil" aura that had erupted around Sakura.

**SHANNARRO! **Screamed Inner Sakura **who the hell does she think she is? His girlfriend?? Let's kick some butt!**

Sakura completely ignored her Inner's protest against the now, smug looking Karin. Just looking at her made her disgusted. She wore the most sluttish clothes she had ever seen.

Sakura slowly limped her way over to Karin's side, grabbing her in one of her locking grips she leaned down to whisper to her.

"I don't know why Sasuke even _thought_ for you to be on his team," Sakura began with a menacing tone "It's clear to me though that you must have something _special_ about you for him to be this desperate." Karin twitched, "Shove it, you pink freak," she snapped back.

This time Sakura just stepped away from Karin, her boots making dust clouds around her feet. Turning her face away from Karin's, Sakura found her shuriken pouch, leaning against a tall tree to her right. Limping towards the pouch (since she couldn't heal her leg all the way from lack of chakra) she bent down, grabbed it, and fastened it around her petite waist. Turning around to face Suigetsu, she did a slight bow in respect, murmured "Arigatou" not bothering to face Karin, then shoving chakra into the soles of her heels, leaped up to the nearest branch, heading towards the nearest village.

Sasuke's POV.

Sasuke stood in a clearing, about 2 miles away from where they had camped at for the night, the wind blowing past his face and rustling his hair. He sensed something, yet, he didn't know what it was. This frustrated him. The Uchiha was accustomed to knowing what was going on around him, and not being able to tell what was going on made him grit his teeth in anger. Garbed in his clothing he had worn during his times in Otogakure, with Orochimaru, he walked forward his sandals making footprints in the soft dirt.

"Juugo," Sasuke said in his monotone voice, still walking forward towards the gigantic curse-mark bearer. Eyes scanning the area around him, Sasuke turned to stare at Juugo, who stood towering infront of him, giving Sasuke a questioning look.

"Yes, Sasuke-sama, I sense something out of the ordinary as well," Juugo stated.

"I wonder……" Sasuke hummed, turning to face the campsite, where Suigetsu and Karin were.

Normal POV

"AHH! What a beautiful and youthful day it is!!" Rock Lee sighed rather loudly, Tenten, and Neji looking like they were about to burst. They were standing infront of the Hokage's office, waiting to be spoken to. "I wonder what Tsunade-sama wanted to talk to us about," Tenten mused, leaning against the far wall. Neji nodded towards Tenten, agreeing with her. Remembering when Shizune-sama came running up to them, panting, and told them that Tsunade wished to speak with them as soon as possible. But she refused to reveal any details about what Tsunade wished to talk to them about.

Sighing Tenten and Neji watched Lee ramble on about the time he had the "New and improved "Curry of life" " and how he was "DYING to see what new challenge lay before them when they were to talk to Hokage-sama" Neji look like he was literally going to tear himself apart, until a sudden bunch of footsteps came up from behind them.

"Well, well look who it is, Tenten, Hyuuga, and Lee," the leader of the group, Mitarashi Anko sensei said, "I suggest you got your message from Shizune?" They all nodded, "good, while we're waiting, Hinata-sama," Anko turned to face the shaking Hyuuga Heiress, "Y-yes Anko-sensei?" she stuttered.

"Go out and fetch, Nara, and Yamanaka at the Yamanaka flower shop, and tell them to hurry up, or they'll have hell to pay," Hinata jumped up, "Y-yes Anko-sensei!"

and sped off running in the opposite direction, (scared out of her poor mind) going to find Ino and Shikamaru.

"Um, Anko-sensei, What about Chouji?" Kiba interrupted from behind, Akamaru barking in approval.

"He has some business to attend to concerning his clan he'll catch up with us later."

Just then Neji stepped in, "Sensei, exactly what do you mean by 'catch up'?"

Anko grinned, ruffling her violet hair. "Ah, you catch on quickly don't cha Hyuuga? Good job. Yes we ARE going on a mission, today. And YES TODAY. Not tomorrow or any other flippin day of this week, next week, next month or year. Got it?" She hissed menacingly to every one around her who sweat dropped. Neji considered how long exactly he'd last under the control of this psychopath without committing suicide.

"Oh, and don't ask any more questions, or make any assumptions, someone might end up getting hurt and we don't want that, do we?" Anko grinned again leaning back against the Hokage's door.

Everyone sighed, then the sound of footsteps pattering down the hallway, and voices reached everyone's ears.

"Nani baka?!" the voice of Ino screeched, "Stop being so damn tired all the time and get up off your lazy ass! I'm your girlfriend, NOT your babysitter so get a grip!"

A loud groan escaped the pineapple head, as the foot steps came closer.

"u-um, S-she does have a p-point, Shikamaru-san," Hinata squeaked.

"Yeah, yeah whatever, lets just get this over with, Troublesome…." Sighed Shikamaru.

As they came around the corner, Hinata fretting in the background, and an ultra pissed off Ino, and Shikamaru, Anko clapped.

"Well well, you guys finally showed up, now lets get down to business."

Just then the Hokage's office door creaked open, revealing Shizune, who signaled them to come in, filing inside the Hokage's office, to face, across the room, the Godaime who sat behind her desk, her fingers intertwined.

"I'm glad you got my message," Tsunade said seriously. "This is very important, so I need you all to listen carefully,"

Everyone in the room nodded. Even Akamaru.

"Good, I've gotten a letter, from Hatake Kakashi, an emergency letter. Here."

The Godaime reached into the pocket in her green robe and pulled out a wrinkled piece of paper that looked like it had been through a hurricane from the way it looked, and handed it to Neji, who stood closest to the Hokage's desk.

Neji's eyes scanned over the wrinkled piece of paper, his white pupils, contrasting and contracting, and he finished the letter.

"I see," Neji's serious voice said, as he passed the letter around the room for everyone else to read.

-"Sakura.."

"Forehead!"

…..

Hmmm…

"Naruto-kun, Sakura-chan…"

Ino started to sob into Shikamaru's shoulder, as Shikamaru looked at Tsunade with a serious expression.

"Lady Tsunade," Shikamaru started, as Ino's tears ran down the side of his shoulder.

"So our mission…. Is to go and meet Kakashi-sensei, Naruto and Sai, in Sunagakure right? Or do we go and try to find Sakura?"

Tsunade nodded slightly.

"Sort of-" She began, "What I want you guys to do, is split up into two

groups, one of your groups will go to Sunagakure, and meet Naruto, Kakashi, and Sai, the other group …… will go and spy on the Hidden Rain, and Mist, and find out as much information as they possibly can on the latest mission requests there. I already have some Anbu over there disguised and doing some work, but they'll need help.

Everyone nodded.

"I've already assigned your groups, the first group that will go to Suna, will be

Hinata Hyuuga, Shikamaru Nara, Kiba Inuzuka, and Anko Mitarashi as captain.

The second group that will go to Rain and Mist, will be

Ino Yamanaka, Shino Aburame, Rock Lee, and Neji Hyuuga as captain.

"Chouji Akamichi will also go with team two, and Tenten will go with team one,

any questions?"

The Rookie 9 all shook their heads, answering her question.

Tsunade nodded, "Ok then, go pack your things, and be ready in and hour to meet and the front gate, go!"

And with that they all vanished through the Hokage's door, to prepare themselves for the mission.

**BACK UP IN SUNAGAKURE, IN THE INFIRMARY.**

Naruto, Kakashi and Sai, sat in a circle on the ground, facing each other.

"Ok," the Copy Ninja began "I just got a reply from Tsunade-sama, she's sending a recruit team to the Sand to help us. Alright?" Naruto and Sai nodded.

Naruto jumped up, "Kaka-sensei, Sakura-chan WILL be alright, right?"

Kakashi looked at the ground, "I don't know, Naruto, we'll just have to wait till back up comes, ok?"

POOF!!! *Naruto disappears *

"Naruto!" Kakashi's eyes widened. _A Bunshin? _

_Does that mean…? _

"Kakashi-sensei," Said Sai, "I think Naruto just went after Sakura-chan without us."

**lol gomen for all the cliffhangers, but i couln't resist. XD**

**anyways hope you liked it, i'll try to get the next chapter up as soon as i can. no garenties that it will be soon though.**

**THANKS! mariemm**


	4. Mysterious

**Ok, so i've made some pretty huge changes in this chapter, sorry it's not longer. but don't worry cause i'm actually getting into this!=D**

**so i'll be getting up the next chappie in a few. ^^**

**~Mariemm**

"Ok," the Copy Ninja began "I just got a reply from Tsunade-sama, she's sending a recruit team to the Sand to help us. alright?" Naruto and Sai nodded.

Naruto jumped up, "Kaka-sensei, Sakura-chan WILL be alright, right?"

Kakashi looked at the ground, "I don't know, Naruto, we'll just have to wait till back up comes, ok?"

POOF!!! *Naruto disappears *

"Naruto!" Kakashi's eyes widened. _A Bunshin? _

_Does that mean…? _

"Kakashi-sensei," Said Sai, "I think Naruto just went after Sakura-chan without us."

**

* * *

**_SWISH….. Swish….._

Came the trees that blew past the running Naruto as he ran through the think tangled forest in search of his team member.

_Gomen, Kaka-sensei, _Naruto thought, not even bothering to think about Sai.

_I had to do it…_

**

* * *

**"LET ME GO!!!!!!!!" Sakura screamed at Juugo. Well, things didn't really go as planned with our little konoichi, as we had hoped.

Juugo kept a tight grip on Sakura. _If only it had been that girl, or shark dude then I'd be able to get out easily!_

See, as Sasuke and Juugo reached their camp, and found out that Sakura had left, well, they couldn't do that yet, so Sasuke told Juugo to go and get her back. Which Juugo did.

And both Sakura's strength and Juugo's were pretty much the same. So that didn't help Sakura one bit.

Juugo looked at Sakura with sympathetic eyes, before saying, "Sasuke-sama whishes for me to bring you back girl,"

Sakura's eyes grew wide, _Sasuke? _

"Ok, let me make one thing straight," Sakura gritted her teeth as Juugo carried her over his shoulder.

"I'm done with Sasuke; I don't want to have anything to do with him for a long time, so LET ME GO!"

'**That's a lie,' inner sakura sighed.**

The outer Sakura sighed also. 'You're right, but I can't go chasing after Sasuke right now, I need to get back to Kakashi-sensei, Naruto, and Sai!'

**So you're saying you can't bring him back yourself? Isn't this what you've been training for?**

'No! That's not it!

**Then…… do it.**

'NO!!! I'm not ready, I-I _can't _do it.'

**If you won't do it, then let me!**

"Ha! Like I'll let YOU do it. You'll just knock him out!" Sakura accidentally said out loud.

Juugo looked at Sakura with a weird gaze, "What'd you say?"

"Ummmmm………"

**Kuso! Kuso! Kuso! **

"Hi?"

Juugo shook his head, and then walked back into the clearing, where Karin, Suigetsu, and Sasuke were waiting.

Sakura averted her eyes away, her eyes starting to water up, she held it in for the most part, since Sasuke could only tell that there was tears framing her eyes.

"Let ME GO!!!!" Sakura screamed in protest, kicking at Juugo's back, Juugo wincing, since she was using all of her strength.

"Ha, is this all you can really do?" Karin stepped in smirking at the furious Sakura.

Too bad for Karin, Juugo just set Sakura down.

"Why **you little— **Sakura growled, stepping towards Karin, forcing as much chakra into her gloved hand as she could.

"Ooooh, what are you gonna do, Smack me? _Please._"

Sakura came in closer, **"**Damn straight, you should be saying _please__**."**_

Karin threw her head back laughing.

"HAHAH-

POW!

Sakura punched Karin in the face sending her flying backwards, with such force that she was breaking the trees she hit in half, for a whole 300ft.

Suigetsu, Juugo, and Sasuke staring at her, Sakura grinned, "That felt good," she sighed, wiping her brow. Suigetsu still gawking at her, Sakura walked past him towards the now limp, broken Karin that lay on the ground, moaning in pain. Kneeling down so that she hovered over the red head, Sakura spoke to the barely conscious girl.

"You better watch your mouth, because I'm not showing any mercy from here on out, got it?" Karin's eyes fluttered shut, giving into the darkness, as her shocked face slowly bobbed up and down.

Sakura grinned, "Good girl," she said, as she picked up the girl by her coat, and swung her over her shoulder and walked back to the three shocked guys, who just stared at her as she walked back past them, not giving them one glance.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to leave her like this, though I whish I could," she muttered, speaking to the three guys. Suigetsu grinned, shakily walking over to the knocked-out Karin, carefully avoiding walking too close to Sakura, who grinned slightly noticing this.

Glancing over the damage done to Karin, Sakura guessed that she had a broken spine, leg, and both arms. And some big cuts emanated from her side, but nothing that she hadn't had to deal with when she hit Naruto, or had to treat other patients. She'd seen worse. WAY worse.

Hovering her glowing hands over Karin's wounds, she slowly lingered over her spine careful not to do any more damage to it as possible.

As soon as Karin was healed, Sakura got up and turned around to face Sasuke and Juugo.

"Let me go," Sakura said.

Sasuke frowned. "What did those ninja want with you?"

Sakura took a step back.

"I don't know," she replied as Suigetsu grabbed her arm and clamped a chakra absorber on it so that she couldn't get away.

"I don't believe you," Sasuke said, walking towards Sakura who was now almost unconscious on the ground.

"That's why, we're taking you back to Akatsuki, Madara should know what to do."

* * *

Pain walked forward through the desolate town, somewhere in the Hidden Mist..

A heavy fog covered the area like a thick blanket, seeable only with his Rinnegan.

Stepping over the scattered skeletons on the ground, he had only one objective in mind,

to bring back the one most powerful being besides the Bijuu and use him to his advantage.

This creature was a monster, which drank the blood from humans to gain energy.

Walking up towards a deserted house, the only one light shining in through the entrance

_It seems he's been waiting _Pain thought, walking swiftly up the entrance and going inside.

Inside, there were bodies of passed out people lying everywhere, pierce marks in their throats.

"What do you want?" whispered a voice directly behind Pain.

"You to come with me," Pain said feeling the tip a knife press into his neck.

"Why should I go with you?" He said, the knife digging deeper into Pains neck.

"You're a Pureblood Vampire, you are immortal, and you are almost like a God to us humans,"

The pressure stopped.

"No, I'm not helping the likes of you," the voice said turning away.

Pain sighed.

"I know where she is."

The footsteps halted.

"What?" The voice sounded urgent.

"I know where she is."

"You're lying," the voice said "If you knew who she was, you would know what she is to me."

"If I tell you, will you come with me?"

The voice paused.

"If you tell me, and I agree with what you say and you take me to her… I'll consider."

"Agreed," Pain said as a figure emerged from the shadows.

A tall handsome man that looked like he was in his late teens stepped out of the shadows. Wearing a long black trench coat, with curly black-blue hair and eerie red eyes, he glared at the leader of Akatsuki.

"Tell me," He said walking towards Pain.

* * *

"HE WHAT?!" yelled Anko and Kiba at the same time. They had just reached the Sand village only to find that Naruto is missing. Great. Just great.

Kakashi looked like an old man, it didn't really help that Anko and Kiba were yelling in his face.

Hinata just stood there, shocked. And through all the commotion, Hinata was the only one they didn't notice.

Naruto, Hinata thought worried, why did you go?

"Well we've got to go after him!" Kiba declared, as though that would be enough.

Tenten agreed, nodding her head.

"Yeah, besides if we follow Naruto, we'll be able to find Sakura too since that's who he's looking for."

Kakashi nodded, Sai standing next to him.

"Well what are we waiting for?" Hinata piped up from the back.

Everyone stopped and stared at her.

"I mean, we aren't waiting for anyone. So let's hurry up and go,"

Kiba stared at her for a couple of seconds, and then grinned.

"Hinata said it," Kiba announced. "Let's get going!"

"Wait," a voice called from behind them.

They turned around to face Gaara, and Kankuro.

"We'll be coming as well," Gaara said.

"Aren't you needed as the Kazekage?" Tenten asked.

"Temari is taking care of it," Kankuro replied stepping forward with Gaara.

"And by the looks of it," Kankuro smirked, "you'll need all the help you can get."

"Alright!" Anko said, walking toward the setting orange sun, "let's get going."

"Hai!" Shikamaru and everyone else called back, following behind.

* * *

Neji was scouting the area. They had just reached the Mist and were looking for the Anbu who should be meeting them any moment.

"Chouji!" Ino scolded, seeing him chug down a bag of potato chips.

"I can't help it Ino," He complained, "I haven't eaten all day!"

Everyone stared at him, wide eyed.

"Are you serious?" gasped Lee, "How?"

"Never mind," Ino interrupted quickly, "We probably don't want to know."

Shino nodded, silent as ever.

Neji turned around quickly, "Everyone, hide!"

The only problem was… there wasn't a place to hide.

"Ok, then," Neji started, "Get your weapons ready."

Standing as still as possible, Neji, Shino, Chouji, Lee, and Ino stood poised, ready for anything.

Then a voice called out, "Put down your weapons,"

Two men with masks came out of the fog, walking towards them.

"It's the Anbu," Ino stated. Neji nodded, agreeing.

"We just came to meet you," The man on the right said.

"There is a town nearby, and a motel there where we can discuss things safely. Let's go there," The second man said.

Everyone started to put their weapons down.

"Wait," Neji said, "Put your weapons back up,"

Ino started at him shocked.

"Just do as I say," Neji commanded.

"You guys," he stared at the two Anbu, "how do we believe that you are who you say you are?"

They both laughed. "Smart one, isn't he?" said the first.

"Definitely smart," replied the second.

Lee glared, "Answer!" he shouted.

"Well, you'll just have to trust us, won't you?" They said at the same time.

**ok, weird, creepy ninja who claim that they are the anbu that Neji's team's been on the lookout for...anyways.. if u've read this, THANK YOU!!**

**if you think that this is weird, i really don't care that much, it's your choice.**


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